


One Hundred and Sixty-Eight Hours

by ShepardonSchtrom



Series: Dazing Diakko [2]
Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Love Confessions, Maybe a small tiny bit of angst?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-07-12 03:19:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15986525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShepardonSchtrom/pseuds/ShepardonSchtrom
Summary: Akko has the realization that she's developed feelings for Diana, and attempts to confront them. Things for the two witches will change in a short span of time.





	1. Determination

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a continuation of the one shot I wrote called "Dazing Light" I really recommend that you read that before reading this.

"Akko, are you alright?" The familiar repeating words snap Akko back into reality, as she realizes that they're not coming from within her mind. Her attention moves towards the witch across from her, on the other side of the lunch table. "Yeah, I am Lotte! Just lost my train of thought I guess."

Akko had been in, what felt like, a daydream. Her thoughts had been strong lately anyways, but talking to Chariot had cranked things to up 11. Today was probably the strongest it had been, she hadn't had anything like that happen before. Her full feeling of bliss had finally faded as she came back down to earth.

Her fellow classmates could tell something was obviously different, "You were acting odd lately, well, odd for your standards. But now you're completely normal." Akko took a bite of her meal as she processed Sucy's response, specifically, feeling annoyed with the fungus-obsessed witch's jab at her. "I know I was acting a little weird lately, but it was because I had stuff on my mind. I've got it all under control now."

Lotte accepted Akko's reassurance, expressing her relief with Akko getting a hang of things. However, Sucy simply stayed quiet. She accepted what Akko had said, but focused hard on her specific words. The three witches all began talking about a myriad of different things, while eating, and eventually finishing, their lunch.

"So, how confident do you feel about your flying skills?" Lotte's question left Akko a tad bit puzzled. She hadn't been practicing as much as she would've liked lately, but was still dead set on improving her abilities. "I'm doing a lot better! I mean, I haven't been able to really move on it for more than like, 5 minutes. But that's still better than before!" The gang had finished their lunch and was heading to the Pisces' classroom. "Amanda said she could give some tips, sometime soon."

"Yeah, that'll go well." Akko is slightly annoyed by Sucy's sarcasm, but it quickly fades from her mind. She, Lotte, and Sucy, all make their way into the classroom. The class, along with most of Akko's school day, feels like it goes by incredibly fast. Once she finally had the time, she returned to the door of Ursula's room, knocking on the door again. She lets Akko in, while greeting her.

Akko goes back to the same chair she sat in the night before, it almost felt surreal to her. The other night she felt so out of it, regarding her feelings. Now she felt confident in what she knew. While Ursula was expecting Akko to swing by her place, she had mismanaged her time. The room was covered in opened up books, covering a variety of different subjects.

"Sorry for the state my room is in, I'm currently researching something and I must've lost track of the time." Ursula raised her wand, using her magic to slowly close the books that were all opened up, before slowly levitating them back to where they belong. Ursula sat back down in the seat she was in before, just across from Akko.

"Well, let's continue from where we left off, Akko." Ursula said, moving her attention from the books that had just flown back to their original locations. She slightly jumps from surprise as she redirects her focus onto Akko, seeing that Akko herself has a laser sharp focus on her.  
"Well, I can tell you've certainly been looking forward to this."

"If I'm being completely honest, I've been having a hard time thinking about anything else." Akko replied, of course there was a dash of hyperbole in there, but it was far from a lie. Her performance during school wasn't negatively affected, but she felt like she had to put more effort into doing what she could do just fine before.

"Well, shall we begin?" Ursula uttered as she collected her thoughts on how to continue the conversation from last night, the last thing she would want for Akko, is to have all the motion of their conversation simply vanish. Akko shook her head up and down, but didn't utter a word, waiting for a response from Ursula. She figured that it would be easy to be rather blunt about it. "So, let's talk about Diana."

"Y-yeah, Diana" Akko said with a shaky tone, she didn't seem scared of talking about what was going on anymore, but hearing Diana's name caught her attention in a way she didn't expect. She racked her brain, thinking of what to say next. She knew she wanted to talk about her, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Since Ursula got her to reveal her crush, she decided, might as well let her take the lead. "What about her?"

Ursula felt a little confused by her question, considering the very large elephant in the room. "Well, you love her, right?" Akko, also felt confused, thanks to Ursula's question. "Yeah I am, I thought I had said that already?" Ursula quickly apologized for seemingly doing pointless catching up, but then got to her point. "If you are then, what do you want to do?"

Before Akko could say anything, the question hit her like she had run into a brick wall. She was so focused on talking to Ursula about Diana, she never thought to actually think about what they would talk about. Ursula patiently sat as Akko thought over the question, looking around at her teacher's room.

"I mean, I guess I can tell her that-" Akko said, cutting herself off. Her mind paused and went into the exact opposite direction that it was just moving towards. She thought about her feelings about Diana at first, but now she was thinking about Diana directly. How would her confession be received? What would happen to either of them if she went through with it?

"Can I even tell her?"

Ursula's smile slowly faded. Her mind was filled with a confused coldness by Akko's response. She waited a few moments before responding to the young witch. "What do you mean Akko? Do you doubt your ability to tell her?"

Akko's mind felt like it naturally wanted to roll around, and around. As if she had just spun many times, till she felt completely dizzy. She collected whatever thoughts she could. "I mean, how would she react? How much would things change after it? What if she rejects me?"

Ursula carefully thought over the girl's words. She knew she couldn't make the simple mistake she's been trying to avoid this whole time. If she could get Akko to open up about her feelings, then she could help her get through this.

"Well, how would you feel if she did reject you?"

Ursula's words genuinely struck Akko off guard. While she did feel like almost getting stuck in a mental pothole, she was able to blast through it. She could visualize the exact scenario, and how everything would go south. And she let herself absorb that situation, and figured out how she truly felt about it.

"I would feel hurt, obviously I would. But I would understand if she didn't feel the same way."

"Are you positive?"

"Positive."

Ursula thought things over, the entire conversation had halted for a small period of time. Akko kept looking at her hat, which had a small patch on it that was burnt. She thought about how she never noticed that burnt patch before. Was it there all this time? How long has it been there? Did that show up today? Was it yesterday? Or the day before?

"Akko?"

The witch shook as she realized her focus was entirely locked onto this small section of a hat. To the point where she didn't even realize that Ursula was talking to her. Shaking her head side to side, she turned her eyes back onto Ursula. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Ursula was surprisingly enough, thankful that Akko had not heard her. While she still stood by what she had said, after saying it, she felt like it sounded better in her head than how she said it. Luckily, now she could say it again, the way she wants to. "If you truly want to deal with your crush, then you need to talk to her."

Before Akko could even let out a single sound, Ursula had stood up and continued speaking. "The two of you have grown a lot recently. I believe the best way to resolve this, is for the two of you to come together and work it out." Ursula walked towards an old red book, covered in dust. Wiping off the dust from the gold nameplate of the book, she gazed at the engraved words, with a smile slowly growing on her face.

Akko sat at her chair, focus still locked where Ursula used to be. Thinking hard about the words that had just left the teacher's mouth, while still having a razor sharp focus on the beat up wooden chair. Her gaze broke and she turned her attention towards her teacher again, who had began to walk back towards the chair. In her hands she held the red book, now holding it out towards Akko, gesturing for her to take it.

It was an old year book, Akko could tell it was pretty old just from how dirty it was. Sticking out of the top of the book were many tabs that were connected to different pages. As Ursula tells her to, Akko opens the book on one of these many tabs, showing a page with many different students of Luna Nova. Her eyes scanned over the pages before finding what she thought was what she was looking for: Chariot du Nord.

"When I was your age, I faced many difficult decisions that I had to make. Some that could go one of two incredibly different ways." Ursula turned back and began to walk away from the chair, before pausing, and looking up at the large window. The sky reminded her of many different moments from her youth, both good and bad.

"With many of these decisions, I didn't know the exact specifics of what would happen after I made my choice. I had vague ideas that could lead to different futures, ones that would be positive, and negative." Ursula's mind slowly trailed away from the subject as she thought back on her days as a student at Luna Nova, before snapping back mentally, to the subject. She looked away from the window, and back at her student.

"I knew that I had to rely on what I truly believed was the right thing to do." Ursula quickly moved back to her chair. Sitting down in it, she prepared to make one last push that could hopefully help the younger witch, move towards a resolution.

"Akko, I realize I may have overloaded you just a little bit. But I want you to think long and hard about what we've talked about." Ursula gestured for Akko to hand her the book, which she did, after closing it. Ursula walked back towards the shelf the book came from and returned it to the original spot it rested. She approached Akko again, as the younger witch stood up. "Whatever you end up doing, I believe everything will work out."

"I think so too, Ursula." Akko stood still, with her head filled with this strange, warm, and fuzzy feeling. She felt more prepared to take action, than she's felt prepared for anything recently. All of her feelings recently, were all poured into a burning determination she had to finally confront said feelings.

"Let me know if you want to talk about anything else, or if anything comes up." Ursula walked towards, and opened the door. Akko walked with her out of the room, she wasn't bouncing about, but with how happily she walked through the hall, you wouldn't be blamed for believing she was. "See you later, Ursula!"

With her new found resolution, Akko marched forward. Determined to confront her feelings for Diana. A new situation did pop into her mind, however.

How was she going to do that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I finally was able to break through whatever mental block I was experiencing with my writing recently.
> 
> This story does directly follow Dazing Light, I decided to make this its own thing because I liked DL as a one-shot, but wanted to expand on it.
> 
> I had the beginning of the story (Dazing Light) and the middle to end bits really thought out in my head, but this part of the story felt a bit like a rough patch to me. I suppose the transition to this part of the story wasn't something I was fully prepared for when I began writing this.
> 
> I'd love to give an ETA for when you can expect more, but I can't with my current schedule.
> 
> I appreciate any and all feedback, before Dazing Light I never published any fanfiction I even vaguely thought of writing, so I'm still fairly new to this.
> 
> I'll try my best to expand this as soon as I can!


	2. Preparation

'What to do? What to do? What to do?' The three words repeated in Akko's mind, over and over again. With her motivation rock solid, she just needed to figure out a course of action. Confessing her love to Diana would be something super important, she needed to make sure everything is absolutely perfect when she does it. As she paced around her room, while her two roommates were out doing who knows what, she gazed at the many things around her. The silence of the room helped Akko think, her vague glances became analyzing looks. Akko's train of thought regarding Diana slowly collided with the information coming into her mind while viewing her surroundings. Her eyes met with the poster on the wall, right next to the place she slept every night.

"That's it! I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" Akko's eyes shined brightly as she gazed upon the image of her idol, Shiny Chariot. Akko's mind raced as she quickly brought out her box of Chariot Cards, everything else going on around her seemed to blur into a dull grey as she became hyper-focused on the task at hand. Opening the box, she looked at the cards in her hands, as her plan started to form within her mind. She experienced an overwhelming sense of cold, followed by a welcoming, warm feeling, by looking at the cards. Akko's mind was stuck on what had happened shortly before the missile crisis, when she had finally held the premium card she desired for so long, in person. It was something she believed, was incredibly important, and absolutely perfect for what she needed. Akko quickly busted out a notebook and began to write out her plan.

Akko's hand quickly dragged across the paper, writing out her entire plan. The witch's focus grew more and more with every line drawn. Any sort of mental block she had was completely dashed. The vivid image of an elaborate confession was forming in the mind of the young girl. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she looked down on the plan, it would need some more work, but it was a solid foundation for what she needed. Akko stood and turned to put away her Chariot cards and try to find something that she would need for her plan. 

After a few minutes of looking around, Akko was able to find what she believed, was the most important piece to her plan. A piece of paper with a small reminder scribbled on it, that Akko had made for herself awhile ago. She picked up the piece of paper and turned back around to her notebook, before being left in a state of shock.

About halfway through Akko's creative process, Sucy had entered the room. While Akko did at least say "Hey" to her, it wasn't something she paid any attention to. She was sound wrapped up in figuring out her confession, that everything else seemingly didn't matter to her. Akko quickly ran towards the book, grabbing it with her right hand, and closing it with one swoop.

"S-Sucy! How are you?" The pale witch stayed silent for a moment, with seemingly no specific expression on her face. Akko stood back, sweating bullets, waiting for a response from her friend. Sucy walked towards her bed, taking the small wrap she held in her arms, and rolled it out, looking at all the mushrooms that were inside of it. "I'm fine, don't feel incredible, nor awful." Akko quickly said how it was great that she was at least not terrible, trying to dodge the elephant in the room. She had intended to continue speaking, to distract from the book, but she was quickly cut off.

"It's a good idea, I don't really know how she'll react to it, but I think it's fine." Sucy's response froze Akko in her tracks, maybe it was preparing for the worst kind of response, based on personal fears, but she was genuinely surprised by her support. Sucy looked at the many different kinds of mushrooms she had laid out before her, each of them with different potential effects she would want to experiment with.

"Do you really think it's a good idea?" Akko's reply to Sucy's statement caused her attention to snap away from the line of assorted fungi that were on top of her bed. A slight tinge of annoyance clouded her mind as she turned around to face her friend again. "It is, if you don't screw it up. Now if you excuse me, I have my own matters to attend to." Akko's face lighted up at the words from her friend. She sprang up and hugged Sucy, thanking her for what she said, before quickly sprinting out of the room, with her plan in hand. Sucy briefly jerked forwards from the unexpected gesture, but quickly returned to her prior composure.

'Hopefully she won't screw this up. If she did, then she would be really bummed for weeks, months, maybe even years. I can't have a variable like that affecting testing.' Sucy thought, as she inspected one of her many mushrooms. She knew her reasons for wanting Akko to not mess up weren't as simple as that, but those kind of thoughts aren't allowed to surface.

Akko dashed from the entrance of her room, with more of a bounce in her step than usual. Her mind raced with many different way of how the confession could turn out, however, almost none of them were negative. Akko's positive outcome towards her plans, filled her mind with joy. Sadly, she was more focused on that, rather than the door she was about to run into.

"Oh, hey Akko!" Amanda stood over the witch, who had just run into the door she was opening. Akko quickly picked herself back up, holding a hand over the throbbing red pain on her forehead. Amanda quickly pulled her back up, after she briefly falling backwards. "Hey Amanda, where's Constanze?"

After a brief conversation, concluding with Amanda telling her to not run into doors, Akko went down into Constanze's personal space, underneath her bed. Looking around, there were many brown cardboard boxes, filled with miscellaneous mechanical parts. Before she could finishing chewing in all the scenery, she began to feel a light tapping on her leg.

Akko's attention shifted down to the Stanbot, its head shaking forward and back, hitting her leg multiple times. It eventually looked back up at her, pointing towards a door to another room, before walking towards it. Akko followed the small console-headed robot into the other room, before redirecting her focus onto the large craft before her.

A large red ship sat in front of Akko, ever so slightly shaking. She could tell the brilliant mind who had been working on it was busy, as many pieces of the outer shell were removed, exposing the inner workings. Akko reminisced on the large ship, especially, the magical transformation it had possessed. Her attention was taken away from the red mass of mechanical mayhem, by the sound of another Witch, moving towards Akko.

"Constanze! You got the box I asked about, right?" Constanze stood before Akko, completely silent, not that it was unusual for her. She turned towards multiple stacks of boxes, grabbing a fairly large one from the stack closest to her. Akko could make out words on the side of the box, and could tell it had some kind of tapes contained within. Constanze lifted up the box towards Akko, encouraging her to look at the selection of tapes.

Akko's eyes scanned the sides of the tapes, many different labels, each one telling its own story. Eventually, her eyes locked onto one particular label that she had shown a massive amount of interest before. Amanda had mentioned Constanze purchasing the box of old tapes, and told Akko why she might be interested in one of these tapes. Akko picked up the tape, on the side it showed a date, followed by the words "ot Performance." The label had originally featured much more, but it seems like a good chunk of the letters had faded away over the years.

"Thank you so much! I've been looking for something like this forever, and recently I've-" Before Akko could truly begin her long ramble, she had the realization that she was sitting on a chair. With the pulling of a switch, Akko was sent soaring upwards, at intensely high speeds. With a loud thud, Akko slammed against the ceiling of the Green Team's room, before falling back down onto the bed. Amanda waved goodbye as Akko hobbled out of the room.

After getting over the red stinging pain from slamming that ceiling, Akko quickly returned to her prior state of being. She had everything she'd need, now she just needed to find the best time to talk to Diana. 'Oh how wonderful it'll be!' Akko thought as she quickly envisioned how the perfect confession would go. However, she had a quite sudden realization.

"Where is Diana?" Akko realized that all this time, since around when she first had gone to see Ursula about her crush, she hadn't been able to talk to Diana at all. She attempted to recall any sort of moment where she had, but she was drawing a complete blank. In fact, she's only barely caught quick glimpses of Diana throughout her days. Akko decided to go and find her, before running into an unexpected obstacle.

"O-oh! Hannah! I didn't see you there." Akko sputtered out, having almost run right into the witch who know stands in front of her. After a brief moment of silence, both witches knew that someone had to say something if either of them were going to move on from this encounter. Akko decided to use this to her advantage, and while she was with her, ask about the friend Hannah orbits around.

"So, do you know where Diana has been? Has she been busy?"

Akko's question, caused Hannah to almost burst into laughter, she quickly withheld her outburst, attempting to prevent her laugh from being interpreted the wrong way.

"Busy? Busy doesn't even begin to describe it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer's block really is something. Sorry for the long wait.
> 
> If this chapter seems to feel really slow, I apologize. I promise that the story is going to really kick into gear with the next chapter.


	3. Situation

Akko looked down at the the things she held in her hands, a notebook full of scribbled notes, and an old video tape. What seemed like a flawless plan just a hour ago, now seemed like it was potentially going to never get off the ground. The wide open path, extended far and far ahead, that resided within Akko's mind, had suddenly been blocked off. Starring at the things she was holding, her eyes slowly lost focus, as she thought about her conversation with Hanna.

"Understatement?"

"Yeah, Diana's gone kind of crazy. She's done nothing but school stuff recently. Barbera and I have tried to get her to take some kind of break, but she doesn't listen."

Akko fully understood why she was doing it, she understood the level of importance that school had for Diana, but she had a strange sinking feeling in her stomach. She quickly pushed the conversation aside and decided to focus on how she was going to confess, the time didn't matter, what mattered was that she did it right. Besides, Hanna made it sound bad, but it's not like she wouldn't be able to talk to Diana at all, right?

Later that day, Akko and her friends had just walked out of a class, alongside their fellow classmates, which of course included Diana. Akko made her way towards Diana, who was looking over small cards with writing scribbled on them, her vision was locked onto the small multi-colored pieces of paper.

"Hey Diana, what're you do-"

"Just going over some phrases I must memorize."

Diana's swift response threw the witch out of balance for a mere moment. It seemed like she wanted to keep the conversation incredibly brief. Akko started increasing her speed, and caught up, side-by-side, with Diana.

"That's just like you, double-checking that you know everything."

Akko's quip didn't seem to phase Diana at all, well, more than it would usually not phase her that is. But she did notice a small tinge in her eyes, that seemed to tense up at her sentence. She wasn't replying, but she was listening.

"So, I was wondering if you could tutor me with some stuff involving levitation magic?"

Diana's eyes sharply rose from the colorful cards, and up towards the backs of the students she was walking behind. She turned her head towards the witch to her left, having just asked her a question. Akko couldn't pin-point what emotion her eyes conveyed, but she had a feeling it was like a combination of frustration and exhaustion.

"I'm give you my sincerest apologies, but I am far too busy to help you any time soon. However, I do wish you the best of luck with your own studies." Diana's focus swung back towards the scribbled notes she held in her hand as Akko slowed down. The young Cavendish seemingly disappeared as she blended in with her classmates as she walked away from the unmoving witch she had just finished talking to. Akko had finally snapped back to reality as she heard a voice calling out to her, from behind.

"Akko, is everything alright?" The sound rung through her head, melting the frozen chill that the prior conversation had put her through. Akko stumbled as she turned around to face the person who had yelled out to her.

"Oh Lotte! Everything's fine."

"Are you sure? You ran away from me and Sucy to talk to Diana, and then froze up once you two were done talking."

In that moment, Akko could really feel the bullets she was sweating. She didn't want to worry Lotte, so clearly the alternative of lying, was the best option.

"I'm telling the truth! Everything is fine, I just stopped moving because I was trying to remember where the next class is."

Both witches could tell that was a horrible excuse, but neither one wanted to continue on that train of conversation, so Lotte just went with it. After Sucy caught up, the three went on with their school day. Akko expected the next time she would come face to face with Diana to turn out better, however, it didn't exactly go as planned.

"I'm studying the history of the broomstick."

"I'm practicing different methods for restraining a hostile creature."

"I'm far too unorganized, and need to put everything back to the place it should be."

It felt like no matter how Akko approached Diana lately, she would give an in-the-moment, calculated response to her, and if she tried pressing on, she would just get shut down even harder.  
Akko knew something was up with Diana, she just knew it, but no matter what she said or did, Diana would try her hardest to act like she was too busy. This situation seemingly repeated over and over again for her, in her memory, as she laid in her bed, staring at the wall to her left.

Thinking about the whole situation frustrated Akko immensely. She knew that Diana desired to be the best witch she could for the day she would eventually be head of the Cavendish family, but her methods for attaining that level she was reaching for, seemed rather self-destructive. With this entire ordeal, Akko felt a strange sense of guilt that she couldn't explain, as she tried to pull Diana away from her work. All of the conflicting emotions and feelings seemingly caused her to halt, and she eventually stopped trying. She wasn't done for good, but she couldn't continue trying to help Diana unless she straightened everything out.

"Hey Akko, are you sure you don't want to talk about anything?" Akko's mentally frozen state was shattered by the outside world as her head quickly shifted towards the source of the sound, entering the room. She sat up to talk to her dear, kind friend.

"Huh? Why would you think I have anything to talk about?"

"Because the last time I checked up on you, you were staring at that same wall you were just staring at."

"C'mon Lotte. I've only been looking at it for a few minutes."

"It's been 45 minutes."

Truly the young witch had been faced with her greatest enemy; sound logic. Akko just groaned and let her face fall towards her hands. Lotte entered the room and squatted down next to the bed that Akko had been laying on.

"If you're comfortable with speaking what's on your mind, then I'm all ears."

Akko let the proposal settle in her mind for a moment, simmering against the heat from her wildly active emotions. She raised her head from her palms and closed her eyes. She couldn't see any way her potential actions at the current moment could possibly make things worse, so she decided to go with her gut. Akko took a deep breath in, and out, before opening her eyes and turning her attention towards Lotte. With one more big breath, she quickly explained everything that had transpired in her life lately.

Lotte listened patiently as Akko seemingly sprang from passionate retelling, to anxious outpouring, to frustrated venting. She didn't really add much as Akko explained everything, outside of asking her to clarify some small details. But eventually, Akko had caught up to today, now a little out of breath from her entire rant.

"And today, she completely avoided any questions about her extra school work, or free time, for like the fifteenth time so far. Hannah and Barbera keep saying that she's obviously not doing well with all the stuff she's stacked on top of her schedule, and I just can't, not try to help her if that's true."

Lotte sat there with a fairly blank expression, you couldn't determine any specific emotion by looking at her, but you could tell she was deep in thought. Akko felt a feeling of anxiety, one she was very familiar with lately, but was much weaker than usual. Maybe everything that's been going on has made this easier for me? Akko thought as Lotte processed her long ramble.

"Well, I can't say you having a crush on Diana isn't surprising, but if I had to pick someone who could manage to internally transform a rivalry into something like that, it would probably be you."

Akko beamed as Lotte responded. Considering Diana's resistance towards her attempts to reach towards her lately, she was happy to have at least one attempt to talk to someone about this subject, end well. Before either one of them could continue the conversation, the one roommate who wasn't previously involved with the discussion, had entered the room.

"Oh, was she telling you that she has the hoots for Diana?"

Lotte confirmed her suspicion, while Akko felt flustered at the way Sucy felt like she had to phrase her crush. Maybe that was the intention, knowing Sucy it was probably the intention. Even delivered in her monotone voice, it still felt like it was in a strangely playful manner, but there was always the chance that it was simply her being very blunt about it.

"What do you think Akko?"

Everything snapped in Akko's head as she realized the other two witches had been talking, while she was locked onto a sentence that had probably not been given as much thought as she had just given it. With a quick shake of her head, she tried to focus on what she did hear from the conversation, and work out a reply. No matter what she said, it would be preferred to admitting she wasn't listening.

"Um, I didn't quite catch a lot of that..."

_Well, at least I tried_ Akko thought.

"Me and Lotte think you might be a bit too passive with trying to talk to Diana, you seem to give up after one simple rejection. If this whole 'work schedule' thing is a big issue, then you need to act like it is"

After hearing the quick summary of the past 20 minutes that Akko managed to completely miss, she began thinking about her initiative. Akko wanted to help Diana so much on the inside, but her crush had changed the way she saw and acted towards Diana, despite her not realizing it, to the point that she had no bark to her attempts at helping her out. In that moment, Akko put her own feelings to the side and decided on one thing, she would not rest until Diana Cavendish would rest too.

"I think you guys are completely right! I'm going to find and help Diana right now!"

Before either witch could even try and follow up her loud utterance, she was already out of the room, racing down the hall. Sucy and Lotte felt frozen for a moment, as they saw what was a blur that vaguely resembled Akko, blast out the door.

"So, do you think she'll find a way to mess this up?"

"Please Sucy, I have faith in Akko, don't be so pessimistic"

"Hey, give me some slack, it's not like she's got a spotless record of perfection or anything."

Akko had searched around, what felt like, every square-inch of Luna Nova Academy during her search. Her search wouldn't last too long, however, as she found what she was looking for in the library. Diana sat at a desk, face stuffed in a book, and stacks upon stacks of books and paperwork, directly in front of her. The entire room had an orange radiance, as sunlight pierced through the window, towards the end of the day.

"H-hey Diana? Do you got a minute?"

"I'm incredibly busy"

Akko felt upset, Diana didn't even bother to pull her face out of the book this time. She stormed towards the table she was firmly planted at, and tried again, to get her to talk.

"I really need to talk to you, and it's very serious, doesn't that seem as important, heck, maybe even more important than this?"

"Possibly, but I don't know if I can take that chance"

Akko's frustration grew even stronger. She gripped the top of Diana's book tightly and pulled it up and out of her hands. Diana was left with an expression of complete shock and anger, but she quickly simmered down as to not lose her composure.

"Very well, please, what is so important."

Akko held up the book in front of Diana, showing all the writing that she was in the middle of reading.

"This, this is what's important."

"Yes I know, which is why I was reading it."

Akko quickly jerked as she realized that she was already being vague, so she quickly slammed the book shut, and placed it down on the table.

"It's not the book that's important, it's your work. That is, you're doing too much of it."

"Ridiculous, there's no inherent issue with my workload lately."

"Don't you agree that it's more than you normally deal with, more than the average student at Luna Nova has to deal with?"

"Yes I do, but that doesn't change the fact that I need to do it. If I don't strive to improve, then I'll become complacent in mediocrity."

Akko stood there for a moment, she was somewhat confused by Diana's statement. Has she really gotten to the point where she thinks she was at one point, working 'mediocre' at Luna Nova?

"You don't really think you were that bad, right?"

"Well, I certainly think my abilities were above the average student, and definitely among the highest of the school, but that's not enough for what I need to live up to."

_There's the elephant in Diana's life again, thinking it knows what's best_ Akko thought, probably misunderstanding an idiom.

"You're not going to need to lead your family for some time, why completely overload yourself with work now? Doesn't it make more sense to just keep doing what you've been doing?"

Diana's responses up till now were quite efficiently conveyed, but her next one took a bit of thinking before it left her mouth, since she seemed to have not liked what Akko was implying.

"Do you think it's really so easy for me to put everything aside and not worry about my family at all? To not think of the standards and expectations for me? To not want to do what I can to live up to them?!"

Diana's voice slowly grew louder, and more defensive, as Akko felt like she had to slowly back away. During a quiet pause however, she calmed herself down again.

"I want to do everything in my power, to make sure my family name is revived with honor and dignity, and if sacrificing some aspects of my life leads to that, then I must, for the sake of my family."

Akko felt a senses of exhilaration, frustration, and passion, going into the talk. But at the point she was at now, she just felt bad for Diana. She reached for something on the desk, a book about mirrors that just so happened to have a reflective service to the front.

"Diana, I want you to look at yourself."

"But why do I need-"

"Just do it."

To get it other with, and because she didn't want to argue over it, Diana looked towards the cover, and saw her reflection. Her hair was messy. Her eyes were baggy, with a tired, almost dead look in them. Even her facial expression itself seemed very slow and unmoving. It was this look that made her look at her entire self and realize that it wasn't just her face. She had been moving slower, the more and more she worked, with her clothes being wrinkly and shaken up.

"By the nines! I didn't realize I looked like this... But I've been trying to maintain my appearance like usual?"

"It's easy to miss details in a mirror, if you're too busy, focusing on what book you're going to have to read for the sake of your education."

Diana slowly sunk back into her chair and looked around. She hadn't noticed it before, but she was definitely doing way more school than what had been previously given to her. And not just an incredibly small amount, a lot was given to her.

"I just can't stand seeing you put yourself through so much, just because of this goal you think you need all this extra work for, even if it means throwing so much of your life away."

It was then Diana noticed another small detail, on another witch's face, rather than her own. Akko had shed a few tears.

"You're a good person Diana, I don't feel like you need to go through all of this. You're going to be a great member of your family, even without all this."

Diana felt speechless, she really didn't know what to say. She stood up and levitated the books on the table, back to their rightful places on the walls. Akko looked up, back towards Diana, with the golden sunlight, shining against her tears.

"I will keep from overworking myself to death from now on, thank you Akko."

Akko quickly rushed toward Diana, and embraced her in a hug.

"Thank you Diana! Thank you so much." Akko mumbled as she sniffled against Diana's shoulder. Letting go of her classmate, Akko used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away her tears, before putting back on the smile Diana was much more used to seeing.

"See you tomorrow, buddy!" Akko walked away from Diana, back towards where she came from, as she realized how late it was. Diana soon had the same realization, and began walking in the same direction, before they would both be in trouble.

Both witches had ended up at their dorms, with Akko saying goodbye to Diana before the high-class witch had entered her room. Akko was immediately thrust into conversation with Lotte and Sucy, mostly Lotte.

"How did it go Akko? Did you let her know everything?"

"Well, she's still not really aware of my crush, but hey, she's going to stop working so hard, and that's what was more important."

This situation did seem a bit complicated for Akko, she did still want to tell Diana how she felt, but knowing how much of a shift both witches have been going through, she had no idea how long she would have to wait.

"No matter what happens, I'm sure she'll know eventually, and whatever happens after that, is up to her."

Akko felt rather complete in her thoughts with Diana that night, she still wasn't sure what the future had in store for her, but she felt comfortable enough that she could rest easy. The same could not be said for Diana, however.

"See you tomorrow, buddy!"

The words rang through Diana's head, the feeling of the hug, the tears on her face, it all flashed through her mind. She felt like a switch had been flipped in her mind, and now she wasn't sure what was going on. Maybe it was the situation with work messing with her mind, but something was definitely up with her emotions.

She eventually fell asleep, with her mind essentially feeling like it was being melted with all different kinds of emotions. She had so many questions about work, about her future, about herself in general, but she only had one answer:

She really liked that hug from Akko.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I don't have much to say.  
> Clearly saying "I'll try to update more often!" and then going completely dark for a month is probably not the best thing to do.  
> I do give my sincerest apologies, my life has just gotten more complicated in general since Chapter 2 and I've felt too crap to write lately.  
> On top of that, my spark of love for LWA has kind of flickered a bit since it's been nearly a year since I finished it (time is going by too fast y'all) which shouldn't be a major issue, I love the show still, but it not being an active love kind of makes it hard to consistently work on this fic.  
> Either way, I don't plan on dropping this fic or having anything keep me from finishing it in general.  
> Still not sure what chapter I want to end at, but I can assure everyone that there is quite a bit to go.


	4. Affection

Grass seemed more vibrant, the smallest of sounds were easy to pick out, the heat felt warmer and the chill felt colder. Everything in general felt better to Diana Cavendish after she rolled back her extra school work, she was still doing more than she needed to, but what she gave up was a nice start. Even with how much she was still doing, her mind felt much more relaxed than it was before. Akko's advice had helped her in ways she didn't expect.

Akko's advice had helped her in many ways.

Akko's advice had helped her.

Akko had helped her.

Akko; that's who Diana had on her mind. As much as she was relaxing, she was also thinking about the witch who had helped her out. Diana had certainly grown comfortable around her, considering the rocky start to their friendship. However, something had changed recently, concurrent with her new mindset.

Akko's tears full of emotion, her tight and comforting hug, everything about that situation had felt so different for Diana. She couldn't just stop thinking about it, what had happened between those two had seemingly implanted this strange idea into Diana's mind, that something grander had happened with her and Akko.

Diana mulled over the thoughts she was having, and a small idea popped into her head, one that she didn't expect what so ever.

_Perhaps it's just infatuation?_

The thought caused Diana to physically stop what she was doing, she never expected a thought like that to cross her mind. A lot of thoughts enter her head, and a lot of them get filtered out, but this one has really made Diana consider possibilities she never even dreamed of.

The infatuation itself wasn't even something that seemed out of the realm of possibility. While Diana hadn't really delved into the realm of romance at that point in her life, she did know that, based on experience, she didn't have the same boundaries like other witches around her. She wouldn't admit it fully, but how she would view girls wouldn't be any different to how she would view men. While she didn't particularly care for either of them, she did know that if she did, then she would be as likely to be interested in a guy, as she would a girl.

But Akko, Akko specifically, wasn't the kind of person Diana ever expected to feel like this for, not even because she was a girl. The two witches had grown closer over the time they've spent at Luna Nova, but based on her first impressions of her, Diana couldn't even visualize Akko staying in the school for more than a month or two, and now she was actively causing some strange thing to go on with her heart.

That strange feeling, was the other point she needed to understand. Diana had no idea how far her feelings went. She did assume infatuation, but still attempted to consider the possibilities.

_What if it's not a shallow pond, what if my feelings for her really do run deeper than I think?_

Diana shook her head and attempted to get focused. She had no idea how Akko felt about the whole matter, and thinking about that distraction all day would actively disrupt her thought processes throughout the day.

Having gotten fully prepared, and beginning to head out the door, Diana was fully prepared for an easy day of school, where she could potentially figure out her newly-found feelings afterwards.

This would prove to be harder than she had anticipated, as there was one critical factor she had forgotten to take into consideration; Akko still went to Luna Nova.

History, Astronomy, Law, Philosophy, it didn't matter what subject she was tackling, she couldn't break away from thinking about Akko, because she would keep seeing Akko. It didn't even need a longing look, all she needed was a quick glance out of the corner of her eye and she'd be back to thinking about that girl who was drawing so much of her attention.

If anything, it felt like every time she saw Akko, her feelings would get stronger. She went from fondly remembering their little situation recently, to just generally admiring her, to actively thinking about actually being with her. All of these feelings felt so sudden and strong, she felt completely dazed by how tough it was to manage them.

_Enough of this torture! I just need to restrain my feelings, just imagine every possible path resulting in a dead end._

As Diana went towards the Linguistics class, she tried to in case herself in that mindset, that no matter what she tried, her feelings for Akko would only end in an immovable wall. If she listened to her feelings, then she would get hurt, maybe even hurt Akko, and both of them would be less happy overall. The logic had no reasoning to it, but it was effective. No matter what happened, Diana was able to hold back her passion when she saw Akko, it was challenging, but much more manageable. She was able to get through the class like any other day.

Breaking for lunch, Diana reminded herself to keep up the mindset, she kept repeating thoughts to herself, horrible doomsday scenarios that would arise if she told Akko that she was infatuated with her. And that, at the end of the day, it was just a simple case of infatuation. Right?

Diana was convinced that her feelings were merely the result of Akko doing something that she really needed, and as such, she started associating the girl with the positive change in her life. But there was also a possibility of the change itself, making her realize the true feelings she felt for the witch all this time. How do I really feel about Atsuko Kagari? The question rushed through her mind countless times as she chewed some kind of meat, she was so distracted she couldn't even tell what it was.

All this time, she was very grateful that both Hannah and Barbara were effectively ignoring her during lunch, not intentionally of course, but it proved very useful for dedicating time to thinking about her issues. One of them however, did break that safety net.

"Hey Diana, what do you think?"

She thought she was in the clear, she thought her victory was set in stone, but Barbara's question had shattered her false hopes.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't able to follow along with the conversation."

There was definitely a feeling of awkwardness rolling in. While Hannah and Barbara could definitely talk about things Diana couldn't care less for, she would, at least, follow enough to answer a question like that.

"Apparently the school staff are talking about how to make Luna Nova for accommodating for new students who have never experienced magic."

"Well, I don't see any issue with that, as long as it doesn't have a direct impact on the level of knowledge their expected to have."

The two witches accepted her response but didn't attempt to involve her in the conversation beyond the single question, at least Diana felt like that was the case, but her mental state was so frazzled that if they did make an attempt, she wouldn't have noticed.

Diana thought she'd be able to get through lunch fine, but a massive obstruction in her path to sanity closed off her planned route, and it was gleaming with joy.  
"Oh, hey Diana!"

It had finally happened, she thought she was safe enough for avoiding her just for today, but her inevitable slip up had finally arrived. Before her stood Akko, holding her own tray of food, with Lotte and Sucy not too far behind from her. Diana was stuck in a perpetual state of confusion as to what to say, it was as if she was turned into a stone statue. Akko could feel the awkward nature of the interaction and had quickly thought of an icebreaker.

"I can see you're really enjoying today's lunch"

The observation snapped the chains keeping Diana's thought processes down. Upon self-reflection, she had realized that she was unintentionally making quite the mess of her food, with the meat, whatever it had been, now resembling a large mesh of red. She quickly reached for a napkin to wipe up the other place she had noticed was covered in meat; her face.  
"I-I guess I was feeling pretty famished before lunch"

Another small pause had followed, as Akko attempted to get the words she so desperately wanted to get out, out of her mouth. She wanted to follow through with her plan, but despite that, she still felt uneasy over leaving everything to faith. She quickly made up her mind however, as she noticed Lotte waving towards her, motioning for Akko to join her and Sucy.

"HeysoIknowit'sreallysuddenbutifyoucouldstopbyourroomtonightI'dliketoshowyousomething!"

Even ignoring the state of her mind at this point, Diana could barely comprehend the lightning fast word-salad that had launched out of the mouth of her friend, as she ran towards the other two members of her group, but she did understand the offer she was making, and started to feel worried.

_I've already felt shaken up just looking at her, I could barely talk to her just now, how am I going to get through this without losing my composure?_

Diana's thought of her making a mistake, and accidentally confessing to Akko, filled her with a dread so powerful that she started feeling light-headed. Diana didn't expect how the girl would respond to those kind of feelings, but wouldn't let herself put stock in the idea that Akko would return them.

She knew that if Akko didn't return them, she wouldn't react horribly, she wasn't that kind of girl. But things would still feel weird between the two of them if such a thing was only shared by one of them.

_Wait a minute, why am I so focused on how she would feel about me being infatuated with her? It's not like it's genuine attracti-_

That's when it happened, as she dropped her fork into the pile of mashed meat, she had finally figured it out. Why she was so worried about if she would return her feelings? Why she hated the idea of her not returning them so strongly? She wouldn't feel like that if it was just a "simple infatuation."

Diana was in love, with Akko, and till now was just in denial about it.

The Cavendish girl sat there, more still than she has ever sat still, this was the strongest she had ever felt attraction for someone, and it was Akko of all people. Akko, who she wrote off as somewhat delusional on her first day, had stolen her heart.

Diana felt like her heart had inflated and floated up into her throat, what was she to do now? She had a million questions about the future for herself, and no idea how she was going to go about answering any of them. It was then that Diana remembered something.

"Believe in your believing heart."

Diana decided then and there, to believe in her believing heart. She shoved all her negative feelings aside and decided to press forward, Akko wouldn't let something like this ruin their friendship, if she didn't return her feelings. If she was going to go out of her way to make sure Diana came back to Luna Nova, then there's no way she would let something like this change her entire view of her.

_Right?_

Well, she was done being in the middle of the road, Diana firmly stepped out of the line, and moved fully into the camp of "Confess." Diana finished her lunch, and tackled the rest of the day head-on, with Akko being the light at the end of her mental cave.

Something different started happening with her new mindset, the few times she saw Akko between and during classes, she was no longer filled with that awkward feeling of insecurity and anxiety, she had a firmer control of her feelings, and wasn't going to let a simple crush get in the way of her work.

The cool and collected Diana that most would think of, had returned. No matter what happened tonight, if the subject never comes up, or if Akko says that she just wants to be friends, Diana wouldn't let it destroy her. However, her mind did wander a small bit as the hours went by, and her time with Akko drew closer and closer.

Well, closer and closer is an inaccurate way to put it, as Diana was already standing at the door of the Red Team's room, hand firmly planted on the door knob, having already gotten the go-ahead to enter from Akko. As she twisted the handle and pushed forward, she was met with something she didn't see often within school premises; a projector.

To be more precise, an entire projector setup, with the box sitting on a stool in front of Akko's bed, hooked up to a VHS player, and a large white sheet on the wall left to Sucy's bed.

"Constanze let me borrow everything! The screen on the wall was a bit hard to set up but I got there in the end."

"Is this what you wanted to show me?"

"No no no, what I wanted to show you is in there."

Akko pointed towards the tape player, before picking up the box's remote and sitting down on her bed. She then patted down the area of the bed, on the other side of the stool holding the projector, motioning for Diana to sit down next to her. As her friend sat down, she fidgeted with the remote for a bit, while looking down, as she spoke.

"I've been looking for this for ages, and recently, Constanze was able to find a copy. I just felt like we should watch it together, since I think you'd care about it as much as I would."

Akko fiddled with the controls for a mere moment, before the player began reading the tape, and the projector began to shine it's light upon the white screen.

The beginning of the tape was indescribable for Diana, she couldn't quite recognize anything, only being able to make out that it was a handheld camera recording of some sort of stage, with an audience waiting in patience.

With a large cloud of smoke suddenly forming on the stage, Diana instantly realized what she was watching.

It was something very memorable from her childhood, a Shiny Chariot performance. An intense wave of nostalgia washed over Diana as she witnessed a spectacle very similar to the one she saw as a child.

Akko fumbled about with some boxes as the tape kept rolling, Diana didn't notice, as her eyes were glued to the nostalgic light being projected onto the white fabric. Akko would occasionally peek back at the video as she was getting something out, her eyes locked onto the visual of Chariot flying through the sky, before going back to pulling out whatever she was getting into.

The performance eventually ended, as did the video tape, which automatically ejected out of the player. Diana's focus then turned from the now blank screen, to the nervous witch beside her.

"Well, that certainly was something! Is that all?"

"W-well, no it's not. I showed you that for a reason."

Akko held the card that Diana had given her, in her hand. The card was the special event card she was never able to get when she was younger, that she only now had, because of Diana.

"Chariot's performance brought me here, made me realize that I could become a great witch, let me meet Sucy and Lotte"

Akko's voice got ever so quieter as she began to approach her reasoning for tonight.

"let me meet you."

That constricting anxious feeling began to creep up on Akko, before she quickly breathed in and out, attempting to wash out the negativity building up within her, which worked fairly well.

"When we first met, I felt like you were just one of many people who thought I wouldn't make it, and I wanted to prove you wrong so bad. With everything that's happened since we met, we got closer."

"Well, I'm glad that despite how things started out, we understand each other, and have a strong bond."

"W-well I want to understand you more!"

Akko's sudden outburst caught both witches off guard, as if they were on a roller coaster that had taken a sudden break.

"What do you mean?"

"Just... give me a second I'm thinking."

_It was going so well! I just had to take it slowly! Why did I get scared that we would stay friends?!_  
  
Akko very quietly lost her mind as she tried to pick up the pieces, while Diana sat in silence, having her own thoughts. After about a minute, Diana had decided to try and get things back on track.

"You mean, you want us to be closer as friends?"

The pieces lined up in Akko's head, she was somewhat afraid of taking the leap, but knew she would choke up if she didn't.

"N-no, not as friends."

With an audible gulp, and her eyes shut tight, Akko took the leap.

"I have a crush on you Diana, and want to be together with you."

The very moment the words left Akko's mouth, Diana's entire thought process had frozen. She had done more than just prepared herself for the worst, she actively expected it. In the brief period of silence, before things got any more awkward, Diana had thrown her arms around the nervous girl sitting next to her.

"I guess it's another thing we share in common, Atsuko Kagari."

What felt like ice melting in her mind for Diana, was a blazing flame of passion in her eyes for Akko, as the two of them had their worst fears for their relationship, blown away like flowers in the wind.

"S-so you want this to be a thing?"

"If the 'thing' is a relationship with you, then yes, I'd like it."

Akko turned toward Diana, now embracing her in a hug equally as tight as the one Diana had been giving to her.

"I cannot begin to describe how much I've wanted to confess to you this week, Akko."

"Same! I honestly thought I was going to go bonkers from all of the stress I've been going through thinking about it."

The two just stayed still in their hug, it was something the both of them had wanted, but weren't able to make happen until now. They wanted nothing more than to enjoy each other's embrace. Akko did realize that Lotte and Sucy would be back soon, and wasn't sure how Diana and her were going to handle their new situation, so she decided that things should probably end for now. And besides, she still needed to return something.

"Well, I guess I should put up all this stuff for Constanze."

Diana quickly popped up, just as Akko had to pack things up, starting to move toward the door to open it for her.

"So, what shall we do about this development?"

Akko sat for a moment, pondering the question from her newly professed lover.

"Well, I know a pretty nice cafe we can go to!"

Diana stood for a moment, thinking about her proposition.

"Yeah, yeah I'd like that."

The two of them walked out of the room, splitting off for the night, Diana paused before Akko had really gotten far ahead of her.

"Hey Akko."

"Yeah, Diana?"

"I love you."

Despite the fact that the two had just confessed to each other, Diana's 3 words were enough to catch Akko by surprise, making her nearly trip in response. In trying to come up with her own words, she just belted out whatever came to mind.

"I love you too!"

Akko quickly caught boxes that were slowly slipping from out of her hands, and walked in a very strange manor, as to redistribute weight, as she made her way towards the room of the Green Team. Diana smirked as she saw her seemingly waddle away, before rushing forward and offering to help her carry the boxes back to their room. Akko refused her proposition, as she wanted Diana to just take it easy for the night. Diana still ended up having to help, as Akko had dropped everything about 3 minutes later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope all of you have a gay new year.


End file.
